When you login OS X asks you for a password. This is a great security feature, especially if you have a laptop and you are taking it places. If you have a computer at home or in your study and you are the only one that has physical access to your computer you may want to have OS X automatically log you in. Here is how to turn on the automatic login on OS X.

By default OS X requires you to type in a password and login each time you restart your computer. If your computer is in a secure location, for example your office, you may want to set up OS X to log in automatically for you.

I have written how to do this using a program called DiskMaker X, and I have written about how to do it from the command line here, but after doing this a few times I find the most reliable method is the one outlined below. It uses Apple’s built-in disk utility.This works with any version of OS X. Mountain Lion, Yosemite, El Capitan etc. You’ll need an 8G USB thumbdrive.

Since OS-X Mavericks (10.9) Apple have been releasing their OS X upgrades for free. This means if you have any version of OS X newer than 10.9 then you can upgrade it to the latest version for free. There are three ways you can upgrade.

Download the Installer from Apple directly to the computer that you want to install the new OS X onto.

Take your computer into the nearest Apple Store and they will do the upgrade for you.

Make a USB thumb drive installer that you can plug into your computer to upgrade it.

Method 1 is Apple’s suggestion method, but if you have more than one computer it requires you to download the OS X update more than once. Method 3 gives you a thumb drive that you can use multiple times to install OSX, and you can even boot off it in an emergency if your hard drive crashes. It is very handy to have a bootable version of the latest OSX on a thumb drive lying around So I suggest option three

This article tells you how to make a USB thumb drive installer so you can upgrade any computer to the latest OS X.

It also tells you how to work out what is the newest version of OSX that you can run on your computer. Continue reading 〉

Here’s how to make a bootable installer of El Capitan on a USB Thumbdrive. It is the quickest way but it uses the terminal so it is for advanced users. If you want a way that is slightly longer but easier for beginners download and run Diskmaker which does the steps below for you automatically! Continue reading 〉

Repairing a broken OSX.

There have been reports of OS X Yosemite freezing after a software update. This can happen to any version of OS X. If your Macintosh won’t boot up firstly I’d leave it a few hours, maybe even overnight, and see if it comes good. If not, you should ring Apple as they will be able to talk you through how to fix it. Otherwise, if you are outside of your Applecare, or want to have a go at it yourself, here’s what I’d do.

Apple don’t have instructions for how to do a clean installation of OS X Yosemite, but it is exactly the same as the previous version of OS X – Mavericks. So if you want a clean fresh installation of Yosemite, just follow Apple’s instructions here of Mavericks”

When your computer first turns on it needs to load the system software (OS-X) and some settings from the hard drive. This is called ‘booting’. Boot time can slow down over time as you accumulate more software and hardware connected to your computer. Here are some tips to make your Mac boot faster.